the eyes and the teeth

A/N: This took me a long time, because I want to skip to the more fantastical part.

Anyway, feedback is always appreciated. Thanks for reading!

"In jujutsu fights, it's always a matter of who's the bigger monster."

A curse is exorcized and a domain is made. Between that, a funeral is held and a promise is broken.

"Senpai!"

You chase after him through the forest– No, this is no forest. This is a park, dense with vegetation, in the middle of Tokyo. You've never heard of a place like this, not even when you'd moved to Tokyo from your hometown, and you aren't even sure if it has a name either. This is a patch of grass in this drab and gray jungle, and you don't think you've ever seen this much green ever since…

"Satoru-senpai!"

You don't know why he brought you here. No, he didn't bring you here, he called you here, saying there's important curses to exorcize and you're just the right person for the job.

"After all, this was once sacred ground."

But that's all hearsay, even if it comes from the strongest sorcerer around. Sure, you've heard of sacred grounds and sites scattered all over Japan, but none of those in Tokyo are so active anymore, and purifying one to an acceptable level of purity, as your elders would say, would take weeks, months, or even longer.

"And I'd like to see an onmyodo ritual for myself."

…and there's also that. The extra pressure that comes with this request, err– invitation? Or would it be better to call this an exercise? A test? Should you feel so honored that you, out of all your relatives, were the one tasked by the Satoru Gojo himself to show him an onmyodo ritual?

"Senpai, where are–"

The crash comes from where you least expect it, both above and below.

"Sorcerer!"

This yokai is something you're already familiar with. Onryou are fairly common, not as much as during the previous era, but your family has faced them before. It's an angry spirit, a vengeful spirit. You know how to exorcize this kind. You've seen it done countless times, you first need to prepare the seals–

"Domain Expansion…"

You have never encountered one that could create its own domain. What kind of onryou was this? Was its thirst for vengeance so strong that it could manifest it physically? No, this wasn't just an ordinary curse or yokai. This was a yurei. This was a person, but who were they and what–

"Blood-stained Pagoda."

The domain emerges around you faster than you can complete the domain-nullifying seal. It's just a piece of paper now. You'd wasted ink on such a thing when you could have cut through the onryou with a swift technique, stopping the domain expansion altogether. But the domain closes around you and the onryou sinks into the red, red tar.

Damn.

This was probably what your grandmother expected to happen to you.

"You will never manifest the gods."

You were never her favorite grandchild, not even close, but she put pressure on you unlike any other. All those rituals and burials and countless exorcisms she forced you into weren't for nothing. You are still part of this clan of onmyoji, and as one of few practicing onmyoji left, you have a responsibility…

"Nagasu: Kireaji."

The ink spills from your body and into a sharp edge. You can hardly call it a sword with its unrefined shape, but it's dripping with ink and it's dripping with raw blessed energy. This is one of the very few times you've resorted to doing something as crude as this, but onryou are as direct as their vengeance is ruthless, and this one is just as–

"No, not a sorcerer…"

The onryou's voice echoes around you, and a tiered vermilion pagoda erupts from the ground. You have read about domains containing actual buildings, so you know where the onryou is. This is like in those video games, you think; climb up the tower, beat the boss at the very top, clear the stage.

"Onmyoji…"

The onryou's voice reverberates with curiosity, interest, and this is the start of the stage. Right after this, you're going to run up the pagoda with your less-than-ideal weapon, ready to defeat the onryou and purify its spirit.

Is Senpai watching?

You don't think about where he is now, but you like to imagine he's going to appear right after you've defeated the onryou, like he's going to congratulate you on completing the stage and give you your scores. So will you pass or fail? Will you live or die?

"I have not seen your kind in so long…"

You cross the pagoda threshold and run up the stairs, ignoring everything else around you. What you've read about domains like these is that you should ignore whatever appears around you that isn't the cursed spirit. Don't waste your energy on these little things. As your grandmother always said, "Don't use ink in the dark."

You told her back then, "Why would I write in the dark?"

She scoffed at you, glowered at you like we weren't her favorite grandchild, "Your stubbornness deters spirits both evil and divine."

You weren't being stubborn then, you had wanted to say, but instead you kept silent and followed as she taught you.

And now, reaching the topmost of the pagoda, you come face-to-face with the scowling face of the onryou. You find it so strange and so fascinating that a yokai of this caliber could manifest a domain so easily. Is there something more sinister lurking in Tokyo that you aren't aware of? Something your clan elders had foreseen? Something related to Tastuya's–

"Onmyoji…"

The onryou greets you with bloody teeth.

"Hello."

And you greet it back by raising the blade, the ink dripping down your hand.

The onryou scowls at you, then smiles, sinister and ghoulish.

And so the real fight begins.

Your grandmother always told you and your many cousins that blood and ink make for a pleasing offering, however distasteful it may order to appease the higher beings, those above heaven and those below hell, there must be some sacrifice of mortals, whether human or animal. The greater gods appreciate the willingness. The viler demons appreciate the desperation.

"Our bodies are the canvas and our blood is our ink."

You have very, very few relatives who have used ink combined with their blood, and you don't want to be part of them. Blood takes time. Blood takes will.

The longer the fight drags on, the more ink is mixed with blood, the more blood is mixed with ink. The sharp edge in your hand is beginning to splatter around you.

No, this won't do.

At this rate, you're better off breaking the sword and letting the ink spill.

So you do.

"Munewari."

The onryou screeches at it is cut apart and the ink spills all around you. Its body flails, cut from the waist down, its innards spill out and release a foul, putrid smell.

But the cut is not deep enough. The onryou is still moving, still racing towards you with its fangs and claws bared.

"Onmyoji!"

Faster!

"Suimon Yaburi!"

The ink in your hand splits into long and twisted spikes, splitting apart the onryou and piercing through its domain.

"Unsan Mushou."

The final move is more of a formality than anything, but it is the actual exorcism and it is conducted by channeling blessed energy from your body and into its domain. You feel the energy flow through you in waves. Light filters through the cracks created by Suimon Yaburi.

Your body is a conduit for all this, and light even filters through the cracks in your body, your fresh wounds.

Ink mixes with blood, blood mixes with light. The domain crumbles apart, and you have successfully completed your first Domain Crush without losing a literal limb. The forest returns, and you watch the ink drip down your body. Your grandmother would be so proud, wouldn't she? You should tell her about it. You should take a picture and show it…

"You're already done?"

Senpai.

"Boo, and I wanted to see it too."

Satoru stands above you–and all others of your kind, you think–on a tree branch, moving a finger back and forth like he was scolding you.

You chuckle, still breathless, "That was a first-grade, wasn't it?"

"Yes," he smiles, "you're learning, my dear kouhai!"

Like he was teaching anything.

"Do curses in the city manifest domains that easy?"

You aren't sure if "easy" was the right word for it. Maybe "commonly" was a better term? Or "usually"? Or changing the question altogether?

"Are curses in the city really that powerful?"

Or even–

"Was all this your doing, senpai?"

"Not usually," he hums, "so this was a special kind."

You want to ask him more questions, about the yurei, about this place, why he'd called you here in the guise of… whatever it was, and why he'd just stood there while the onryou summoned its domain around you. Was he waiting for this to happen? Was he hoping you'd prevent its domain from actually forming? Or was he hoping he'd be trapped along with you so he'd see the exorcism for himself?

Well, it wasn't the grand ritual itself, but it was close enough.

"I guess we'd have to find another yokai then, senpai," you shrug, "that wasn't even close to the exorcisms my family does."

You can hear the agreement in his disappointed hum.

"After I spent all that time tracking that thing?" He whines, "You better make the next one worth it."

You don't understand his sudden fascination with the ritual, you could always just show it without an actual yokai. Or was he that keen to see it in action? It wasn't such a grotesque and macabre thing, but it's not pretty. It's not something you'd show someone to impress them. Or was Satoru that… kind of person?

"I can always just show it, senpai," you furrow your brows, "no need to do all this."

And really, you'd rather not risk your life just to satiate someone's curiosity.

"But I really want to see it for myself," he says with his back turned to you, "with my own eyes."

You wonder what his eyes really do look like. You'd only heard and read about the Gojo clan's Six Eyes and Limitless, and honestly, you don't want to witness it.

"You can ask my grandmother, I'm sure she'd be… happy to show you."

That's when he turns to you, sharp and quick, as if he'd been insulted.

"She hates my guts," he huffs, "your entire family does!"

Why is he saying it like it was obvious?

"They do? Then why did they…"

He's laughing now, loudly and bellowing, and it echoes in a place like this. The leaves rustle and branches sway in the wind. You feel your face redden and you aren't sure how to react properly when the strongest sorcerer is laughing at you– when a god-on-earth is laughing directly at you.

"He's too powerful for his own good, so you ought to learn from him, else you're better off severed from the family completely."

Your grandmother wouldn't really… She wouldn't cut you off just like that, would she? Leave you in Tokyo to be the Gojo clan head's pet project? You're still in the running to become the inheritor of the sacred technique! Neither Lord Enma nor Amida Butsu has removed you from the list of avatars–

"Don't worry about it now," he heaves, "let's go."

He's off into a casual walk, a stroll before you can say anything else.

"Where to next, senpai?"

You catch up to him, or he slows down, you aren't sure.

"We're going hunting, duh."

For what… exactly?

You realize, a few minutes later, that hunting with Satoru Gojo is anything but obvious or easy.

"Here we are."

Now, you're standing in front of a dilapidated building, five floors high with its windows barred by wood and wards alike. It looks to be the setting of a horror game or movie, the campy kind, the kind with gasping ghosts and screaming spirits, and you're the protagonist and Satoru is the… No it's the other way around, Satoru is the protagonist in this kind of story, the smart-mouthed detective type, and you're his rookie sidekick who's clumsy with a heart of gold.

Except you aren't clumsy, at least not as clumsy to be considered charming, and your heart isn't necessarily as gold as you'd like it to be. And Satoru isn't exactly the detective type…

"There's been reports of grave diggers, and they all intersect at this location."

Creepy. Ominous. You can feel a faint, faint energy emanating from the building.

"Nobody knows what happens to the bodies or where they go, or what exactly is stealing them."

There could be hundreds of different kinds of yokai whose diet is comprised of human flesh, whether fresh or decaying, and you aren't fully ready to deal with the nastiest of them. Were you going to be the one to exorcise it, or was it Satoru?

"The first one to it gets treated to dinner."

Does he think it would be so easy? What if it was of the highest grade? What if it wasn't just one, but an entire troop of them? Shouldn't he have told you this earlier so you could better prepare? Have some wards ready at least?

"I'm not–"

In the blink of an eye, Satoru disappears.

And in another, silence.

Then a resounding burst of energy emanated from the inside of the building.

Then another, louder and booming, shaking the air around you.

And then… complete silence. Calm. An unsettling kind of peace. The foul energy around the building is dissipating.

So fast!

"All done."

Satoru reappears behind you and you stop yourself from being surprised. He doesn't look the least bit ruffled, like eliminating whatever it was that was hiding in the building took no effort at all. Was Limitless really that powerful? Was the Six Eyes really so rightfully coveted by the jujutsu community? Why did he bring you here, anyway? Just to show off how great and awesome he is… by not really showing you?

"Senpai…" you mutter, "that's not fair."

"Yeah, well," he shrugs, "you didn't wait."

Was he… still bummed about earlier? Did he just do this to get back at you?

"The onryou opened its domain, and you weren't exactly anywhere near."

"Yeah, I know. I saw it."

That made you stop.

"Y-you did? Then why…"

The strongest sorcerer saw everything and he didn't do anything? You could have… Or maybe that's what he wanted to see, if you'd survive. Was this all a test, then? Did your grandmother orchestrate this? Or this being a punishment seemed more like her. She wouldn't remove you outright, so she leaves you to the care of the strongest sorcerer in all of Japan and… Actually, you're a lot confused now.

But Satoru laughs, loudly.

"I wouldn't let you die just like that!"

He laughs like it's funny.

"Not when I'm not there!"

Like it's really, really funny.

"To at least try and stop it."

He tuts as if he was scolding a child, half-hearted and uninterested.

"You know domains are so brittle on the outside," he continued, "and you have whatever gods behind you, so you wouldn't die anyway."

No, he misunderstands…

"So let's get going!"

You're starting to understand why he acts the way he does, why he talks the way he does, and it's because he, Satori Gojo, is just too powerful, too otherworldly for people like you. He exists on a different plane, sees things from a different plane, and maybe you should ask what he really thinks and get to know him like a person.

"I don't understand, senpai."

That stops him in his tracks, and he turns to you slowly. He looks at you like he's eager to hear a question.

"Well, what'd you wanna know?"

You frown at him.

"Why did you accept?"

It's a question that's been bothering you for quite some time, ever since you've been introduced. Why would the last descendant of the strongest jujustu line become the mentor to an omyoji runt like you? This doesn't make sense, not even when your grandmother explained it. She wanted you to get along well, but what does that mean? It couldn't possibly be…

"Did my grandmother arrange something?"

You know the implications of something like this, you've known it all your life, but you refuse to acknowledge it. She couldn't possibly have done this to punish you for choosing Tatsuya, she wouldn't be so cruel, would she? You understand the value of keeping your community strong and ensuring the onmyoji line continues, but she wouldn't–

"With me? No way!"

He laughs, loudly.

"Then why?"

You don't like how he's looking at you like you should already know the answer.

"Because the best can only learn from the best."

He smiles at you, and you feel yourself flush under the Six Eyes. He can see right through you, can't he? See past the tattoos and the skin, he can see right through your flesh and bones, see that thing inside you that growls and howls and yearns…

"Duh."

He laughs again– like a Buddha.

"And if that old hag ever did want the Six Eyes, she'd come get them herself."

You think that's a warning.

"She wouldn't send you."

You think he could cut right through you without any effort.

"So let's go! I'm getting hungry."

There's a pop in his step you think is forced, but you follow quietly, dutifully, wondering if he did mean what he said about you being the best.

"I did mean it, ya know," he shrugs, "you're probably the best one out of all your cousins."

Right then, you understand he can always see right through you. But what does that mean, being the best out of everyone?

"She wouldn't have let you elope here to Tokyo if you weren't, would she?"

He's talking in riddles, you think, he's playing a game. Maybe he's interested in that storybook love story of yours and Tatsuya.

"And she wouldn't have let you stay here either."

"This is my punishment, senpai," you try to explain, "she's always disapproved of Tatsuya, anyway."

He should understand what that disapproval meant, right? After all, people like you don't usually… mingle with normal people, right?

He looks away and sighs.

"Even gods can fall in love, after all."

You can't see his expression, but you agree. There are stories about that, after all.

"Even you, senpai?"

He doesn't answer, and you feel ashamed of your question. It wasn't too intrusive, was it? You've been wanting to ask that question ever since that strawberry soda incident, and you're already on such good terms, maybe you're even friends now.

But then he turns to you, smiling with closed eyes, "Take a guess."

He's off to a stroll before you could.